1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the remote document viewing, and in particular to the use of wireless devices to view document files stored in a remote computer in real time.
2. The Prior Arts
As the technology progresses, small handheld devices such as the mobile handsets and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are becoming more and more popular due to their small form factor and ease of use. People also rely more and more on such devices to store their vital information while they are away from home or office. However, due to the devices' limited capability and the wireless infrastructure's limited bandwidth, it is still inefficient in using these devices to access information stored in a remote computer in a real-time fashion.
In the commercial world, such timely access to important business information is of extreme importance. Business people have long been hoping to use their handheld devices to remotely access the document files stored in their office computers. These document files are usually in the Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint formats. At present, most mobile service operators have been offering GPRS services or even the so-called 3G network services which allow mobile handsets or PDAs equipped with GSM/GPRS modules to connect to the public Internet, which in turn connect to a computer accessible from the public Internet. Prior arts require that the handheld devices are installed with appropriate applications to view the Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files and these files have to be completely downloaded first onto the handheld devices over the wireless connection.
There are several disadvantages in prior arts' download-before-read approach. First, the files are usually quite big compared to the limited memory capacity of the handheld devices. A single such file may consume all the available memory of a handheld device. Secondly, downloading the entire file usually takes a significant amount of time due to the limited wireless connection bandwidth. Thirdly, the handheld devices have a limited viewing area that is much smaller than a computer screen and inferior color imaging capability. The file content (both text and graphics) has to be re-formatted to fit the small LCD screen of a handheld device. At last, the prior arts require the installation of special applications on a handheld device. However, the handheld devices are evolving at a tremendous speed and the handheld devices lack a common platform standard upon which the special applications can be developed without being tailored for various platforms.